EOS Brings 4G to the Xoom and So Much More

Just a couple of days ago, we wrote about how CyanogenMod 9 had triumphantly been kanged for the Motorola Xoom tablet. However in writing this, we largely (and unintentionally) ignored some of the most important developers and releases for Google’s reference tablet.

Anyone following the Xoom development timeline has surely noticed that the Team EOS, the evolution of TiamatXOOM, has racked up more than a few “firsts.” From the first true custom ROM to the first the first 4G-enabled release of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, EOS is a staple of the Xoom development community. In fact, although the Ice Cream Sandwich update for the WiFi-only Wingray has already started making its way to select WiFi-only devices, the 4G-enabled Stingray’s update release schedule is still unclear.

So who are they, and why do they do what they do? Simple. The EOS team—comprised of XDA forum members Solarnz, Nusince, Bigrushdog, GPstar, kcrudup, phokus, and MADIndustries—feels that although the Xoom is a “very capable hardware platform,” Motorola’s tablet “has been plagued from day one by short sighted decisions made in an attempt to rush to market a much needed answer to a competitors growing titan.” The result? The Xoom has become the “red-headed stepchild of the Android development community.” Naturally, it has been the goal of EOS to help alleviate this—and this, they have achieved.

Through laborious efforts centered around AOSP-based builds of Ice Cream Sandwich, their offerings have “received a number of enhancements and modifications, based primarily around usability and function. It is also the only ICS build currently available that fully supports LTE data services thanks in no small part to the efforts of Bigrushdog. Features are being added every day as we push ahead towards a release candidate and our first official EOS release.”

Those looking to sample some of the most recent EOS offerings should continue on to the Wingray and Stingray ICS nightly threads.

[Thanks to Solarnz and Nusince for all of their help in putting this together!]
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Will Verduzco

willverduzco is an editor on XDA-Developers,
the largest community for Android users. Will Verduzco is the Portal Administrator for the XDA-Developers Portal. He has been addicted to mobile technology since the HTC Wizard. But starting with the Nexus One, his gadget love affair shifted to Google's little green robot. He is also a Johns Hopkins University graduate in neuroscience and is now currently studying to become a physician.
View willverduzco's posts and articles here.

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